Foods to Go

This section will be reviews restaurants we encounter on the road. The aim is to provide a list of places to get good food while traveling. It is by no means complete for any area. Asterixes around a *name* mean I would go back.

I'll start with Albuquerque.

*La Montanita Co-op*
The Co-op is a local true co-op, carrying organic meats, eggs, dairy, produce, baked good, and pretty much anything else you might want to eat. They also have Aroma and Winnings coffees. They've recently increased their to go section to include humus, soups, sandwiches, salads, sushi, burritos, and juices.
www.lamontanita.org
Nob Hill -- 3500 Central SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 265-4631, Mo-Sa 7-10, Su 8-8
Valley -- 2400 Rio Grande Blvd, Albuquerque, NM 87104
(505) 242-8800, Fr 7-8, Sa-Su 8-8

*Bubbles Cafe*
This place is great. They make wraps, juices, smoothies, coffee and tea. We get Shuman the Human Wrap all the time, which is a grilled tempeh wrap. Other wraps have turkey, chicken, humus. You can chose between spinach, wheat or regular tortillas and all sorts of delicious sauces. It's a great place to hang out -- the owners are super cool.
$30 for two 3500 Central SE Suite C, Albuquerque, NM
(505) 265-2705, Tu-Sa 11-8 Su 10-3

*Luigi's*
Luigi is from Brooklyn and makes real pizza here in Albuquerque. The crust is great and tasty along with the toppings. Evan had mushrooms one day and they were real, not canned ones. In addition to the red sauce, you can order white pizza without the sauce or my current favorite pesto sauce. One suggestion is to ask for light cheese since the first time there Evan's pizza had way too much cheese, even for him. Other than the pizza, we've only tried the nice antipasto plate. the do have soups, a salad bar with lots of goodies and not very interesting lettuce, baked pasta dishes, and typical Italian meat dishes.
$25 for two 6225 4th NM, Albuquerque
(505) 343-0466

*Sharon's*
Sharon's is the greatest for healthy vegetarian food. She uses organic ingredients. She creates great things from tempeh, tofu, beans and just plain ol' vegtables. I've loved the tempeh sandwich, tempeh reuben, spinach salad and baked goods which are low in fat and white flours.

Sharon herself is there and clearly super interested in healthy eating. She and her staff care about the customers, meaning the service is attentive and informative about her kind of food.
$25 for two

*India Kitchen*
This reminds me of NYC. Our favorite place there was fancier and served more upscale type dishes. This place is more homey in atmosphere and style of food. Main dishes come with a plate of rice, lentil crisp bread, and condiments. There are chicken, lamb, seafood, beef, and vegetarian entrees all of which are yummy,well-prepared, and not greasy at all like some Indian food can be.
$30 for two

Arizona

*Dambar Steakhouse*
This is where all the race people were served a group lunch after the Kingman Hill Climb. (2.5 hours from Parker, AZ) It was great food, great service. I even requested something different from what everyone else was eating and that was not a problem at all. Bless their hearts. Everyone was enthusiastic we were there and smiles the entire time. Everyone understood the need for speed with all us post-race hungry riders.
1960 E Andy Devine, Kingman, AZ 86401

California

*Big Sky Cafe*
This place is a hip, healthy-food restaurant that granola heads and regular people will like. Laura and I went last night. She had a chicken sausage plate with garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, and red cabbage, and a large, side plate of grilled vegtables. I had a yummy roasted eggplant and pepper soup which, I guess was just blended up eggplant and peppers with seasonings of course. Then for the main dish, I had pork slices topped by an incredible fig chutney with a barley pilaf on the side. For desert, they had lots of good choices. Laura had a Sourdough bread pudding. I had a tofu mango-lime pie with raspberry sauce and a marmalade-type mango sauce on top. Everything was prepared very well, presented well and the service was great.
$38 for two.
1121 Broad Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(805) 545-5401

*Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Natural Foods Market and Cafe*
And I thought I wouldn't find healthy food on the road. Healthy, Wealthy & Wise has natural packages foods, vitamins, lotions and whatnot. They also have a deli/cafe serving teas, fresh smoothies, fresh juices, sandwich type foods, and deserts. After the road race Marie, Laura, Leigh and I had a little snack. In all we tasted the smoothies (bananna, papaya, strawberry), juices (carrot/celery), sprouted bagel with soy butter, sprouted roll cheese sandwich with alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers with sides of a giant pickle and chips, sprouted avocado sandwich with the same as the other sandwich, and vegan banana pudding. The bagel was $1, a 12oz juice $3, and the sandwiches in the $3 range.
1416 S. Mooney (between Tulare & Walnut), Visalia, CA 93277

New China Cafe
There's not much here in Merced. This Chinese place was ok. I ordered steamed broccoli and tofu as a special order and they were able to do that. It was not as plain as I had hoped and I couldn't tell you what they put in the liquid steaming sauce. Tasty, though salty. Laura got a pretty gross mystery item. Marie got a good noodle dish, which was marketed as &famous homemade". While here I am doing so, New China is nothing to write home about. Service was uninformed. Normal Chinese food prices.
1002 W Main St (at Q), Merced, CA 95340
(209) 722-1485

Lenny's Italian Café
Super slow!! I hate that. The slowness was blamed on a computer breakdown of some sort. It seemed to me the waitress was having a breakdown. Once we got the food it was good, normal Italian food. They served sandwiches, pastas, salads, and really good coffee. I expect this would have been a great place to get a pre-criterium espresso, as the Saeco team did. I left $20 for my pasta dish meal.
1052 West Main Street, Merced, CA 95340
(209) 722-0350

Western Bagel
So, it's true - Californians don't know what a bagel is. This place is no exception which was clear when I walked in and saw chocolate chip, cranberry, pizza, and blueberry bagels. My rye bagel was like bread, or a kaiser roll really.
23170 Valencia Blvd, Valencia, CA 91355
(805) 254-1287

*Lassen's Natural Food & Vitamins*
Yippee!!! I love finding good health food stores while traveling. This in one of them. They had all sorts of cool stuff, including non-wheat muffins, non-wheat brownie mix, all the grains, good produce, tons of vitamins, cereals, breads, nuts, dried fruits, tofu, tempeh, meats. Anything you could want. This is very close to Performance Cyclery (below).
26861 Bouquet Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91350
(805) 263-6935

*Performance Cyclery*
Simply, an all out excellent shop. This is Catherine Cardwell's shop. She totally trusts and thanks Frank and Fred. Both are good mechanics, she says. Both know about racing and riding, having been involved for many years as racers and support. Frank did extensive and excellent work on my TT bike, making it faster than it was before. He was super detail oriented with it and did meticulous work.
26067 Bouquet Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91350
(661) 254-4008
M-Fr 10-7, Sa 10-6, Su 12-4